End of the nonstops to LAX & EWR on the A345

[flyguy]

spare parts for the A345 will be available for quite a long time and basically it shares alot of commonality with the A330 except for the engines.
However its good that SQ orders new planes as Scoot will get the brand new modern 787s soon.

[Desert Traveller]

You are right. Also do not forget AirBus has stop the production of A345. Is a matter of time that you will not enough spare part for maintenance.

So to sell early vs till the day of no buyer should be a better choice.

No spare parts? There will be OEM spare parts for 340s for the next 20+ years...just because the aircraft is no longer being sold and produced, does not mean the manufacturers involved just stop supporting the customers. Just look at all the 343s that are still flying...they went out of production years ago.

[CarbonMan]

Hah! Finally ST decides to write on it! Well, okay, at least they didn't hold back much.

[reddevil0728]

SIA to scrap non-stop US flights in 2013

Singapore Airlines (SIA) has decided to pull the plug on its non-stop flights to Los Angeles and New York after years of struggling with poor returns.

With the end of the services from late next year, all travellers heading to Los Angeles will have to transit in Tokyo, Japan, while those flying to New York will stop in Frankfurt, Germany.

It will also mark the end of the world's longest commercial flight - 18 hours from Singapore to New York.

SIA launched its non-stop service to the United States amid much fanfare in 2004, with the ultra long-haul Airbus 345 aircraft. The aircraft, of which the airline has five, initially came in two classes - 64 seats in business class and 117 in the premium economy cabin.

Flying high on the back of solid demand from corporate travellers, SIA ripped out the economy seats four years later and turned the A-345 into an all-business class aircraft with just 100 seats.

The move created much unhappiness among economy travellers, who lost their non-stop option, but seemed to make good business sense at the time.

But the end-2008 global economic crisis created problems for SIA. The slowdown hit the lucrative premium air travel market as companies started slashing travel budgets and downgrading executives from premium to economy.

Fuel prices also started to climb shortly after that, making it tough for SIA to operate the routes viably with the fuel-guzzling, four-engine A-345 aircraft. Except for the Airbus 380 superjumbo, which capitalises on its carrying capacity to be fuel-efficient, all other modern aircraft come with two engines.

Mr Shukor Yusof, an aviation expert at Standard & Poor's Equity Research, said: "SIA initially capitalised on the plane with its 181-seat mixed configuration but when it switched to all business class seats and the financial crisis came, the game was up."

While SIA has never commented publicly on how the non-stop flights are performing financially, Mr Shukor expects the airline to continue to lose money until services are terminated.

"SIA will make losses, especially on the Singapore-Los Angeles route. At current jet fuel prices, we would need to see a consistent load factor of minimum 70-75 per cent on all A-345 flights to the US for volume and yields to be justifiable," he reckoned. "I doubt that is happening. Our view is that the five A-345s have been SIA's weakest link in the past few years."

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking...-2013-20121026

[cscs1956]

Why are people so hung up on the 345? One of the pilots told me they are burning 1,500 kg of fuel per person for SIN-EWR. With kerosine getting more and more expensive, no one will be willing to pay for the price SQ would have to charge to make the whole thing profitable.

You are right. Also do not forget AirBus has stop the production of A345. Is a matter of time that you will not enough spare part for maintenance.

So to sell early vs till the day of no buyer should be a better choice.

[MAN Flyer]

I smell a "Last To Journey - A340-500 - SQ22/21" in the offing.

It is incredible to observe that neither the Straits Times nor the Business Times in Singapore in today's edition chose not to write about the planned cancellation of the a345 flights, instead, focusing on the good news "growth" angle.

I can't help but be cynical about how bias the local press can be with some entities.

I actually find the blatant bias of the press in Singapore, and Malaysia, one of the more amusing aspects of the region. It's so ridiculously one sided to be cringeworthy, and just funny imho. The fact that in this day and age of all the electronic media and communcation it kids nobody, but it carries on regardless, is even more amusing.

[CarbonMan]

Why are people so hung up on the 345? One of the pilots told me they are burning 1,500 kg of fuel per person for SIN-EWR

Am not sure what load factor that figure is based on. Presumably it would be different if there's only one pax vs a hundred.

The current spot price for jet in Singapore is US$126 per barrel which converts to US$995 per metric ton - let's just round to US$1000. So assuming the figure of 1.5 metric ton per pax is correct, then the total cost fuel per pax is approximately US$1,500. A flight in Dec SIN-EWR now costs S$12,500 return or approximately US$5,081 one-way at today's exchange rate. So it works out that the cost of fuel is about 30% of the cost of the ticket. Rough, rough. It would be interesting to find out what a flight like SIN-EWR actually consumes.

[SQ228]

It is incredible to observe that neither the Straits Times nor the Business Times in Singapore in today's edition chose not to write about the planned cancellation of the a345 flights, instead, focusing on the good news "growth" angle.

Even our better paper in Melbourne ran an article on the SQ A345 cancellations.

QF will now get the trophy for longest flight for it's SYD-DFW service. Not the return trip, mind you, which operates as DFW-BNE-SYD due to the headwinds.

[flying.monkeyz]

Why are people so hung up on the 345? One of the pilots told me they are burning 1,500 kg of fuel per person for SIN-EWR. With kerosine getting more and more expensive, no one will be willing to pay for the price SQ would have to charge to make the whole thing profitable.

I think SQ has its way, they'd want the 345 out of the fleet even sooner!

[SMK77]

Why are people so hung up on the 345? One of the pilots told me they are burning 1,500 kg of fuel per person for SIN-EWR. With kerosine getting more and more expensive, no one will be willing to pay for the price SQ would have to charge to make the whole thing profitable.

[milehighj]

It is incredible to observe that neither the Straits Times nor the Business Times in Singapore in today's edition chose not to write about the planned cancellation of the a345 flights, instead, focusing on the good news "growth" angle.

Do you really think the SPH journo's even have a clue the implications of selling back the A345s?

OTOH:

Singapore Airlines to End World’s Longest Non-Stop Flights
By Kyunghee Park - Oct 25, 2012
Singapore Airlines Ltd. (SIA) will end non-stop services to New York’s Newark Airport and Los Angeles, the world’s longest commercial flights, next year because of rising fuel prices and slower demand for intercontinental trips.

The all-business-class flights will end in the fourth- quarter of next year, the airline said in a statement yesterday, as it announced an order for 25 Airbus SAS aircraft. The Toulouse-based planemaker will acquire the five four-engine A340-500s used on the routes as part of the deal.

The end of the almost 19-hour Newark service will leave Singapore Air travelers facing a five hour longer trip to New York, as the carrier’s alternative route goes to the city’s JFK airport via Frankfurt. The airline is canceling the non-stop services, which started in 2004, as businesses cutting costs hit long-haul travel.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-1...next-year.html

[9V-SIA]

Taking into account the "Krug per seat mile" consumption of the Man Who Sat in 4A, I wonder if they could load enough and still do EWR-SIN...

May not have the range to reach EWR if too much Krug.

Hell one of my flights, they ran out of Diet Coke over Michigan!

It is incredible to observe that neither the Straits Times nor the Business Times in Singapore in today's edition chose not to write about the planned cancellation of the a345 flights, instead, focusing on the good news "growth" angle.

I can't help but be cynical about how bias the local press can be with some entities. Granted they did say that SQ's business was tough, etc, but the removal of the ULH flights is big news to the financial markets in more ways than one.

Perhaps, yesterday's quote was a slip of the tongue and the CEO didn't quite mean what he said about the 345s?! An April Fool's joke in the wrong month, yeah??

Here's hoping LKY will intervene!

[9V-SIA]

Looks like my SIN-LAX-LIM-CUZ trip needs to be earlier!

[CarbonMan]

It is incredible to observe that neither the Straits Times nor the Business Times in Singapore in today's edition chose not to write about the planned cancellation of the a345 flights, instead, focusing on the good news "growth" angle.

I can't help but be cynical about how bias the local press can be with some entities. Granted they did say that SQ's business was tough, etc, but the removal of the ULH flights is big news to the financial markets in more ways than one.

Perhaps, yesterday's quote was a slip of the tongue and the CEO didn't quite mean what he said about the 345s?! An April Fool's joke in the wrong month, yeah??

[SQ228]

I am a big fan of these ULH flights to/from US. More time to relax and sleep. I sleep better on these than on any other flights.

I'd agree with you there!

My long hauls are always SIN-Europe, but the length of the flight is the key to good sleep. A 12 hour flight allows 2 hours or so of meal service at either end leaving a good 7-8 hour period to sleep. I always avoid SIN-MEL at night if I can because the time left for sleep is barely 3 hours which is arguably worse than no sleep at all.